We've tried lots - but some stand out as fine-tasting, disease-free, heavy cropping favourites on our soil - they are in bold!

Varieties I've tried.

Variety

About

Results

Junior

Early

Tried in 2003, as a substitute for the Pentland Javelin which cropped well in 2002; proved to be also disease and slug free, good flavour and excellent keeping.

Duke of York (white)

Early

Tried in 2003, good flavour, but not high yielding (my soil? or the weather?). Waxy boiling potato as an early - or grilled on a barbecue!

Pentland Javelin

Early

Cropped well in 2002, disease and slug free, good flavour and good keeping.

Red Duke of York

Early

Another one we tried our first year, and again an immediate favourite - best of the earlies on my soil! Needs grass in the planting trench to protect them against scab. Superb flavour, and stores very well.

Kestrel

Second Early

Tried this in our first year, and it was immediately a favourite - best of any potatoes I've grown, in the plot and in the kitchen. Good disease resistance, partial double eel-worm resistance, and slug-free. Reliable even in a very dry summer.

Yukon Gold

Second Early

Very yellow skin, with a buttery flavour, supposed to be good for baking or frying. Gorgeous boiled! Not a great yield in this year's drought - but well worth trying again.

Wilja

Second Early

Fine as a potato, but definitely a second-best to Kestrel - smaller yield of slightly larger potatoes, some slug damage.

Franceline

Second Early

A new red variety, bred from Charlotte - good yield and good flavour, despite the dry summer.

Sante

Early Main

Almost best potato on my plot in 2001. Disease resistant, and double eel-worm resistance. Vandals destroyed the beds in 2003, but we still got a small crop, clean and unmarked by any disease.

Osprey

Early Main

No notes anywhere, so it doesn't seem to have surprised me!

Valor

Early Main

Supposedly good overall resistance to eelworm and blight - but sadly irresistable to foxes the year I tried them!

Cara

Late Maincrop

Good yield when we tried them in 2003 - beautiful looking potatoes, some of baking size despite long dry summer. Disease and pest resistant; mild flavour. It was disappointing in 2000 - but that, I suspect, was down to me putting them in late, in a patch of ground cleared too late.

Arran Victory

Late Maincrop

Needs a VERY long season, so prone to blight and slug damage; not one I'll try again.

Kerr's Pink

Late Maincrop

Another Scots potato - my parents used to grow this! Lots of potatoes, lovely and floury; but they needed a lot more water, I guess - they were pretty small. Well worth doing again.

Nicola

Salad(Early Main)

Cropped well in 2002, but didn't do well in this year's hot dry summer. Clean and disease free, but not inspiring!

Belle de Fontenay

Salad(Early Main)

Classic salad - yellow, smooth and waxy. But I wouldn't know - the fox aquired a taste for these! We had only a few tiny half-chewed specimens.

Pink Fir Apple

Salad(Late Main)

Promoted to favourite! Low yield in a dry summer, but superb flavour! Classic salad - knobbly, and to be cooked in its jacket.

Charlotte

Salad(Second Early)

Good crop of salad potatoes, with good flavour and good keeping properties; close second to Pink Fir Apple.